Love and business mix in Twain Harte

In a New York hotel lobby, a red-headed Iowa girl working in public relations meets a job-obsessed Jersey boy who works in marketing.

Forget that they live on different sides of the country. They date, fall in love, go into business together and buy a dog.

The next big-screen love sob story?

No, this is real-life tale of Tuolumne County residents Doug Kennedy and Tracie Snitker.

They own and operate Reverb Communications, Inc., a Twain Harte-based marketing, sales and public relations agency representing companies in the foothills and Bay Area.

"I think it encompasses some of the best of what both of us have worked on," Snitker said of the clientele.

Kennedy moved from his New Jersey home to go to college at Arizona State University. While in school, he landed a sales, marketing and merchandising job with the Phoenix Suns, an NBA team.

"A lot of frat brothers were working for the Suns," Kennedy said.

Kennedy was 24 when a tour manager offered him a job coordinating events  mostly concerts  at the American West Arena where the Suns play.

Because of his connections with the music industry, Kennedy was approached by a videogame company that wanted musical celebrities to play its games.

The videogame connections then led to marketing a videogame computer chip to companies like Dell and Gateway.

After three years, Microsoft hired Kennedy to market the X-Box videogame system. Kennedy set up the system at events tailored to young adults  such as concerts and sports events  so those attending would play, and hopefully buy, the system.

In his high-tech heyday, Kennedy also purchased property, including a vacation house off Tuolumne Road. Kennedy said he picked the area by laying out a map, calculating what areas were a three-hour drive away from the Bay Area and drawing a circle to encompass it all. Tuolumne County fell within the circle.